This blog is essentially my online Curriculum Vitae. My stories have mostly appeared in Canadian magazines.

May 08, 2010

FOR ABOUT TWO years, I was listed on the masthead ofAdbusters magazineas a contributing editor. I did a dog's breakfast of stories for them, some of which are collected here. Most of the ideas were hatched by the sometimes brilliant and always inflammatoryfounding editorKalleLasn, and I brought them to life following instructions such as, "Make me a mind bomb."

THIS IS LIKELY one of the first collections of professional writing that I ever assembled.

The first piece is a profile of Toronto'sfarmers' markets for CityBites magazine, a puckish local food rag that stays afloat on the sweat of perhaps my biggest mentor and a fantastic drinking companion, Dick Snyder.

Second, a first person riff on learning to catch waves with Surf Sister in Tofino, B.C., for a defunct lad-ish lifestyle mag (from the wrong side of the tracks) called 360 magazine.

Next up, a data-happy front-of-book piece about the Canadian government'sSea King helicopterdebacle for another defunct (though eons more respectable) magazine called SaturdayNight.

Batting cleanup, a story I wrote about an Australian euthanasia crusader creating "death bags" modelled after a Canadian prototype for theNational Post.

And finally, the first real travel story I ever wrote forup! magazine, about exploring the sights, sounds and suds of the George Street Festival in St. John's, Newfoundland.